Grealish and Moyes furious at lack of extra time in Derby, with the former being booked for dissent after full-time.
Everton’s Grealish and Moyes hit out at referee over stoppage time.
Everton’s 2-1 loss to Liverpool left them disappointed by the duration of stoppage time, as both David Moyes and Jack Grealish criticised referee Darren England.
Hugo Ekitiké and Ryan Gravenberch placed Liverpool ahead, but Idrissa Gueye gave Everton a response. Everton was upset not to tie the score after exerting a lot of pressure on the champions in the closing minutes.
Grealish, who was the victim of repeated fouls, was booked by England after full-time for taking his complaints to the referee. “We couldn’t get the last goal and it was frustrating in the second half,” he told TNT Sports.
“They were trying to slow the game down at times. I’ve never seen a player in my whole life get booked for taking a quick free-kick. I don’t know where that rule has come in. Even the stoppage-time, three minutes and one minute – I’ve never seen that in the Premier League in the last two or three years.
“There were frustrations with the referee. Sometimes you want to let the game go, I completely get that, but you can’t not give us something and then two seconds later one of their defenders goes down after getting touched in the back and he gives it.
“You come to these stadiums and the crowd are on them, I feel that they feel they have to give it. Kiernan [Dewsbury-Hall] is on four yellows now and he got one for taking a quick free-kick. We want to get the game going, we’re losing.”
After a significantly stronger performance than they had before the break, Everton had the best of the second half and caused Liverpool some issues. Regarding the final three minutes, Moyes remarked, “That was really odd.” We received a booking for each brief free-kick that had to be stopped and brought back for the whistle. It seems quite unbelievable to me.”
After Liverpool held on to win the Premier League for the seventh time in a row, Arne Slot hailed their tenacity. Liverpool has blown two-goal leads three times this season before rallying late to win, but a dramatic conclusion was not necessary on Saturday.